A multi-access network in which multiple devices share a common medium for communications may provide medium access control (MAC) through a process of spectrum or carrier sensing. To implement such a spectrum-sense network, devices sense whether other devices are using a shared spectrum of the medium (e.g., by detecting a carrier wave) as a means of avoiding interference. Carrier sensing may be performed at both the sender device and recipient device. For example, before a sender may transmit a message, the sender or recipient or both may be required to first listen for communications on the shared spectrum, and only after the listening devices detect that the shared spectrum is idle, permit the sender to subsequently proceed to transmit its data.
The particular MAC mechanism being used when multiple devices (e.g., access points and wireless stations) are located within a limited region may affect area spectral efficiency. For example, with spectrum sensing the sensitivity with which a sender device or recipient device senses whether a channel is idle determines how far other devices have to be for their transmissions to be detected. The disclosure below presents various aspects of improving channel resource usage in wireless network systems by improving area spectral efficiency.